Line #20 Film/ROTOR


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0806f9eea07ce564fe8bd80ee0b77fab.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Not quite [[Film/MadMax1 the maximum force of the future]].]]
3
4	->''"My objective was pure enough: To make the streets of the city a little safer. Where gangs of punks, dope dealers and the rest of society’s scum could be effectively controlled, and hopefully eradicated. A controlled army of police robots could stop the slaughter of the hundreds of policemen who sacrifice their lives every year in the protection of those they serve. But how do you stop a killing machine gone berserk, with only a go button and no compassion?"''
5	-->-- '''Barrett Coldyron'''
6
7	Robot cop goes berserk. Creator hunts it down. You know the drill.
8
9	Barrett Coldyron is a cyberneticist with the [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]] Police Department. To save society from itself, he works to create a perfect robotic lawman, codenamed Robotic Tactical Operations Research. It will be four years before the kinks are worked out,[[note]]He estimates that in 25-40 years, society will have degraded enough to need the robot[[/note]] but Coldyron is a patient man. Unfortunately, a conniving politician demands that the prototype be released in its current form, and Coldyron resigns in protest. The project is taken over by a couple of bumbling subordinates, who accidentally launch R.O.T.O.R. on a killing spree. It's up to Coldyron to stop it.
10
11	''R.O.T.O.R.'' was written, produced, and directed by Cullen Blaine Houghtaling, who had previously worked mainly as a storyboard artist for [[SaturdayMorningCartoon Saturday-Morning Cartoons]]. It was released in 1987, quick on the heels of ''Film/{{RoboCop\|1987}}''. It started getting a reputation as classic trash, making the rounds of bad movie sites such as [[http://www.jabootu.com/rotor.htm Jabootu]], [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130713074953/http://bleedingskull.com/r-o-t-o-r-1988/ Bleeding Skull]], and [[http://www.monstershack.net/sp/index.php/r-o-t-o-r-1988/ Monster Shack]]. In 2013, it was featured in an episode of ''WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst'', where its cheesy charms were revealed to a new generation of BMovie enthusiasts. In 2014, the film became the subject of a comedic commentary by Podcast/RiffTrax, with some of the best quotes documented here. After languishing in obscurity for a quarter of a century, ''R.O.T.O.R.'' continues to languish, but not in quite as much obscurity as before.
12	----
13	!!Tropes featured in ''R.O.T.O.R.'' include:
14	* TenMinuteRetirement: Coldyron retires from his job after an argument with Bugler. He rejoins the force shortly after R.O.T.O.R. goes berserk.
15	* TheEighties: Depressingly so. The reason the R.O.T.O.R. project was even able to get funding is because crime is so rampant that even with ''twenty-five years'' as a projected completion date, it just sounds like a direly-needed weapon for law-enforcement and thus a sure-fire political move.
16	* EightiesHair: Mullets... mullets everywhere.
17	* AcronymConfusion: Exactly what R.O.T.O.R. stands for actually changes during the film (the second R is alternately "Research" or "Reserve").
18	* ActionSurvivor: Sonya, who spends most of the second half of the movie running away from the KillerRobot and the only true weapon she has is a car horn (amusingly, it's [[WeaksauceWeakness the only weapon]] she ''needs'').
19	* AesopCollateralDamage: Coldyron learns a valuable philosophical lesson, albeit at the cost of R.O.T.O.R. killing or maiming several people.
20	* AIIsACrapshoot: Predictably enough, though it's unclear how much is not having had the years of bug-testing Coldyron projected he'd need, how much is the robot being activated suddenly thanks to the actions of an oblivious janitor, and how much is inherent in the very idea itself:
21	-->'''Coldyron:''' I've already wondered if our creation is going to rescue society or destroy it.\
22	'''[[Podcast/RiffTrax Mike:]]''' Wait, you've ''wondered'' that?! Meaning it could go either way?
23	* AllCrimesAreEqual: Due to faulty programing, R.O.T.O.R tries to execute anyone who breaks any law whatsoever. In one scene, he kills a guy for speeding, and, somewhat oddly, spends the rest of the film [[SternChase trying]] to kill his passenger for what it considers resisting arrest.
24	* AlmightyJanitor: Definitely averted with Shoeboogie. He fancies himself a ladies' man with a trove of "Indian lore", but in reality, he's an annoying loser whose clumsiness [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom activates the killer robot]].
25	* AnachronicOrder: The film starts with Coldyron emerging from the woods after having destroyed R.O.T.O.R., and the main story is recounted in an extended flashback while Coldyron is being interrogated at police headquarters.
26	* AndroidsAndDetectives: Willard and Houghteling have this kind of relationship.
27	* AntagonistTitle: R.O.T.O.R. is the name for the robot cop.
28	* AppliedPhlebotinum: "The metal itself can learn, remember, and teach itself. It doesn't need motors, gears, and tubes."[[note]]'''Mike:''' [[ImmediateSelfContradiction Just ignore all those]] ''[[ImmediateSelfContradiction tubes]]'' [[ImmediateSelfContradiction there!]][[/note]]
29	* AssholeVictim: Sonya's fiance is given one scene to establish that he's a dickhead, then he's shot dead by R.O.T.O.R.
30	* BadassBystander:
31	** An ordinary-looking woman is taken hostage by a thug. After she is freed by Coldyron, another thug appears, and the woman attacks him with martial arts moves. Her skills are so ludicrous, it seems odd that she would have been taken hostage by some petty thug in the first place.
32	--->'''Mike Nelson:''' Forget R.O.T.O.R.! I want to see a movie about ''her''!
33	** ''R.O.T.O.R.'' is not a film with many cowardly people willing to knuckle under. Throughout the film, numerous people come to Sonya's defense and bravely attack R.O.T.O.R. They tend to fail and get severely injured and even killed for their efforts, but, hey, points for trying. Plus, the truck driver even manages to successfully shoot R.O.T.O.R. and (briefly) injure him.
34	* TheBait: Sonya, because if she's in police custody, R.O.T.O.R. will start to focus its attentions elsewhere and kill more innocents.
35	* BigEater: In one scene, we see Coldyron and his ladyfriend having lunch in a restaurant. The next time we see them, it is early afternoon of the same day, and they are preparing to cook themselves two steaks the size of toilet seats. Welcome to Texas.
36	* BrainUploading: Apparently part of Coldyron's mind is in R.O.T.O.R. Steele says that it would be a good idea to exploit this ("your [Coldyron] failure is his failure"), but nothing ever comes from it.
37	* {{Brawnhilda}}: Steele, to the degree that she looks like she's in unconvincing drag when wearing a dress.
38	* BullyingADragon: A trio of rednecks think that R.O.T.O.R. is merely a human police officer, so naturally they pick a fight with him. Because, you know, threatening just a ''human'' police officer is wise.
39	--> '''Redneck:''' Hey, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain faggot city cop]]!
40	* ButtMonkey: Coldyron's destruction is prearranged by his corrupt superiors. His victory over R.O.T.O.R. only briefly postpones his fate.
41	* CallingCard: Conveniently for the investigators, the AssholeVictim somehow managed to grab the “R.O.T.O.R.” nametag off the killer robot ''after'' being shot in the head.
42	* ChekhovsGun:
43	** Early in the film, we see Coldyron blowing up tree stumps by lassoing them with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primacord primacord]] rope. This is what he ultimately uses to destroy the killer robot.
44	** Shoeboogie tells a story about how his ancestors would quarter a condemned man by tying his limbs to four horses and driving them in different directions. A similar technique is employed by Coldyron in restraining R.O.T.O.R. during the climactic scene.
45	---> '''Mike:''' Just as the prophet Shoeboogie foretold!
46	* CockADoodleDawn: Justified, in that Coldyron lives on a ranch.
47	* ComicallySmallBribe: Sonya's fiancee attempts to wave R.O.T.O.R. off with a $20 bribe. Not that R.O.T.O.R. would ever have accepted any bribe, but still, the attempt is rather pitiful.
48	* ConflictBall: The snarling Commander Bugler seems to exist entirely for this purpose. He orders Coldyron to finish R.O.T.O.R. within sixty days, although the project is not slated to be complete for four years -- and has a personality to deal with an assumed societal breakdown in 25-40 years (!). Bugler's unreasonableness and unexplained hostility seem calculated to initiate drama and cast Coldyron in a sympathetic light.
49	* ContrivedCoincidence: Sonya is shown stopping her car at a gas station to call the police, which suggests that she doesn't have any on-board means of communication. In a later scene, she steals a car which happens to have a C.B. radio in it. Nobody finds this strange.
50	* CoolBike: R.O.T.O.R.'s motorcycle is a Yamaha Seca 650 Turbo.
51	* CopAndScientist: Coldyron combines both characters in one.
52	* CopHater: At the very least the trio of guys at the diner, who are willing to attack what, to their eyes, looks like a regular police officer on Sonya's behalf.
53	** Even the cook, who sees Sonya run in through the backdoor, slam it, lock it, and walk into the dining room, and gives it nothing more than a "huh, don't see that every day" kind of response. When ROTOR comes in through the backdoor, though, the cook tries to attack him with a knife!
54	* CopKiller: After destroying R.O.T.O.R., Coldyron is arrested on suspicion of having murdered a cop.
55	* CoversAlwaysLie: Look at the trope image. R.O.T.O.R. doesn't have [=RoboCop=]'s body armor, and the story doesn't take place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
56	* CrapsackWorld: Everyone takes it for granted that the future will be a hellish dystopia where killer robots are the last hope of humanity.
57	* CrucifiedHeroShot: Villainous version with R.O.T.O.R. Why? Who knows.
58	* DelayingTheRescue: Coldyron leaves Sonya to continue her flight from R.O.T.O.R., explaining that he needs to use her as bait.
59	** While she's doing that, mind, what ''he's'' doing is having a colleague fly down from another city, picking her up from the airport, taking her to check into a hotel, change clothes and have some pseudo-philosphical discussion, ''then'' finally going after R.O.T.O.R.
60	* DidntThinkThisThrough: R.O.T.O.R has a weakness in the form of a keyhole on his back, allowing one to deactivate him by putting a key in and turning it. The stupid part is this would obviously require getting within striking distance of him, so you have to wonder [[InventionalWisdom why the designers didn't make some sort of remote control or whatever to shut him down from a distance.]] Granted, R.O.T.O.R himself doesn't seem any smarter in this regard, as he never tries just filling the keyhole with cement or the like to make it unusable.
61	* DisproportionateRetribution:
62	** For R.O.T.O.R., minor traffic violation + $20 bribe = death. [[JustifiedTrope justified,]] as his faulty and incomplete programming makes him think that AllCrimesAreEqual.
63	** [[spoiler: There is also Bugler killing Coldyron with a shotgun at the end. If not for a couple of ''very'' quick and ''very'' vague moments that imply that he's doing it because Coldyron knows too much about R.O.T.O.R. and thus needs be silenced, you wouldn't be wrong to assume that he's doing it because he hates Coldyron's guts ''that'' much.]]
64	* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:Coldyron gets killed out of nowhere by Bugler mere moments on a sunset shot after he gets acquitted of R.O.T.O.R.'s rampages and with little foreshadowing and provocation against Bugler.]]
65	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Bugler kills Coldyron with a shotgun at the end because HeKnowsTooMuch.]]
66	* DullSurprise: Every character in the film, but Steele tops them all. Her "My God" is so flat you'd think she was reacting to not getting ketchup for her fries and not the murder of an innocent civilian.
67	* EstablishingShot: TheMovie! Especially during the “Thursday morning” section, where the film dawdles over the picturesque minutiae of Coldyron's ranch house, his mildly zany morning routine, and his commute to work.
68	-->'''[[WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst Rich Evans]]:''' They had to establish the prairie, so they could establish the farm, so they could establish the farmhouse, so they could establish the kitchen counter.
69	* EverythingIsBigInTexas: Especially steaks and shoulder pads.
70	* FailedAttemptAtDrama: R.O.T.O.R.'s EstablishingCharacterMoment includes a moment where it walks through several rows of empty folding chairs to try to present itself as an ImplacableMan... unfortunately, it is pretty easy to see the actor had difficulty doing so. All it did convey was that the robot's pathfinding algorithm was unable to identify the unobstructed route one metre to the left.
71	* FauxlosophicNarration: Coldyron and Steele engage in this in the most stilted, monotone way possible.
72	** A sampling:
73	--->'''Coldyron:''' A brain without a heart. A conscience without recognition. A will without a soul.\
74	'''Steele:''' If I miss, you'll be fighting your own base instincts. To combat pure will, you'll have to use pure illogic.\
75	'''Coldyron:''' What do you mean?\
76	'''Steele:''' You will have to allow yourself to fail. Use your failure against him! Your failure, is his failure. Your weakness, is his weakness. Then, only then, can you do something.
77	** Then you have this gem from Coldyron:
78	--->'''Coldyron:''' Remember what I said at R.O.T.O.R.'s christening? First prototype of a future battalion, on the battlefield highways of the future. He’d be the Judge, Jury and Executioner. Now I’ve got to wonder, were we playing God, breathing life into our artificial Adam? Or have we lost sight of Paradise? What was it [[Creator/JohnMilton Milton]] said? "Did I request Thee, Maker, from my clay to mold me Man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?" Is it his fault he is what he is, or is it ours?
79	* FilmingForEasyDub: A lot of dialogue is dubbed over exterior shots of cars driving. This is also probably the explanation for all the phone call scenes, where an off-camera character delivers a speech as another character sits on camera, listening.
80	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The climactic battle between R.O.T.O.R. and Steele takes place in the background while Coldyron helps Sonya to safety in the foreground.
81	-->'''[[WebVideo/BestOfTheWorst Jay]]:''' This is like a Zucker Brothers gag!
82	* GeniusBruiser: Steele is introduced as a genius scientist, but [[InformedAbility all she does]] is physical fighting.
83	** From [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130713074953/http://bleedingskull.com/r-o-t-o-r-1988/ Bleeding Skull]]:
84	---> Dr. Steele, will you be my friend? I don't want to push. Who knows where this could go? I know: You are huge. You could pick me up and toss me across the room. And, frankly, [[TooKinkyToTorture I would love every minute of it.]] Your skunk mullet would draw attention to us at restaurants and people would say "Who are they who believe they can flaunt societal decorum?" and I would tell them to "Cram it!" because you and I should be friends. Good friends. I'm making you a mix tape, downloading it to my [=MP3=] player and sending it, online, to your heart. Call me?
85	* GoodTimesMontage: Coldyron and his ladyfriend enjoy a leisurely dialogue-free date, set to a smooth eighties ballad.
86	* HandCannon: Both R.O.T.O.R. and Dr. Barrett Coldyron carry early-production Desert Eagles. The KillerRobot is justified because he is meant to stop crime [[PoliceBrutality by any means necessary]]. Coldyron is probably justified because [[EverythingIsBigInTexas he's a Texan police scientist, rancher]] and the Kyle Reese stand-in of the film.
87	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday:
88	-->'''Shoeboogie:''' Either I'm an Indian or I'm a sissy!
89	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Steele is killed by R.O.T.O.R. after she rips it open to expose its innards - [[SenselessSacrifice rather than]] picking up the de-activation key Coldyron dropped ''right there''. Rather than remote offing the machine, she gets a killer bear hug instead.]]
90	* HerrDoktor: Bugler calls Coldyron this literally, but Coldyron doesn't fit the trope.
91	* HitlerCam: Used on R.O.T.O.R. to make him seem huge and threatening.
92	-->'''[[Podcast/RiffTrax Mike]]:''' The poster from Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''[[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]]'' demands royalties.\
93	'''[[Podcast/RiffTrax Bill]]:''' ''(exasperated after the shot has been held for twenty seconds)'' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis WE. SEE. HIM.]]
94	* HollywoodLaw:
95	** The cause of the movie's problems begin because Coldyron's benefactor, Senator Douglas, wants to unveil R.O.T.O.R. and ride the publicity to win a Presidential election in six months -- or else Douglas will have everyone associated with the project jailed for graft and corruption. Never mind that such a move would likely get Douglas in trouble as well[[note]]or why he'd need to secretly fund such a project to begin with[[/note]], how would the Senator become one of the major parties’ candidates for President just a few months before an election?
96	** And then there's doozie number two that is the R.O.T.O.R. Project core programming ("AllCrimesAreEqual -- LeaveNoSurvivors"). Even with a ''very'' generous prediction window of twenty-five years minimum (from the late part of TheEighties) before society goes to hell bad enough that such a set of directives will be needed, the thing is pretty much a walking civil liberties lawsuit (which makes the first point even more baffling).
97	* {{Homage}}: Steele's skunk stripe is an homage to ''Film/BrideOfFrankenstein'', which [[{{Foreshadowing}} Foreshadows]] the ending when R.O.T.O.R. II resembles her.
98	* {{Hypocrite}}: Bugler sends a heartfelt letter to Coldyron's nephew [[spoiler: telling him of his uncle's passing, despite being the one who cruelly gunned him down in cold blood, and establishing early that he hated Coldyron's guts.]]
99	* HowWeGotHere: Almost the entire film is Coldyron being debriefed by Dallas PD and telling them what happened.
100	* IdiotBall: No one ever uses R.O.T.O.R.'s WeaksauceWeakness until the very end of the film. Besides that, we have the instances of people attacking R.O.T.O.R. with little or no provocation, despite that assaulting a cop is a terrible idea even when they ''aren't'' a KillerRobot.
101	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: There are a few jarring discrepencies between dialogue and on-screen imagery.
102	** During the establishing shots of Dallas, a traffic reporter describes severe traffic congestion, while the viewer can see that the highway is clear.
103	** Coldyron claims that R.O.T.O.R. has no 'tubes', precisely as the camera is panning over the robot's... tubes.
104	** Coldyron claims to have "crippled" R.O.T.O.R.'s motorcycle. Meanwhile R.O.T.O.R. zips away at full speed, totally unscathed by Coldyron's bullets.
105	* ImplacableMan: R.O.T.O.R. won't stop until he executes his suspect.
106	* IndecisiveParody: Due to the inconsistent tone and the addition of obviously comedic elements, the movie is unable to decide whether it wants to be a parody of ''Film/RoboCop1987'' or a straight rip-off.
107	* InflationNegation: The gas station advertises gas for 69 cents a gallon.
108	* InformedAttribute:
109	** R.O.T.O.R. is supposed to be the perfect robot cop that is able to clean up all of the scum in the city. It only kills one person on-screen and spends the rest of the movie failing to kill Sonya, who was just a passenger in a speeding car.
110	** Also early in the movie there's a radio traffic report saying the highways are packed with people fleeing town for the weekend, which left the Rifftrax boys in shocked disbelief at how empty they were in the footage actually shown.
111	* InsaneTrollLogic: "The difference between a hero and a villain is the amount of compensation they take for their services. At our pay grade, I'd say we're heroes."
112	* InterrogationFlashback: The film is mostly framed by the interrogation of Barret Coldiron by the Houston Police after the apparent death of a police officer at his hand (who really was the titular KillerRobot).
113	* InventionalWisdom: R.O.T.O.R has a weakness in the form of a keyhole on his back, allowing one to deactivate him by putting a key in and turning it. The stupid part is this would obviously require getting within striking distance of him, so you have to wonder why the designers didn't make some sort of remote control or whatever to shut him down from a distance. Granted, R.O.T.O.R himself doesn't seem any smarter in this regard, as he never tries just filling the keyhole with cement or the like to make it unusable.
114	* IronicEcho: The line "Justice delivered. C.O.D." is said twice during the film: when Coldiron is talking to Bugler about how much of a mess they have on their hands with R.O.T.O.R. running around with incomplete, buggy programming that is meant to [[KillerRobot kill all criminals]], and [[spoiler:in the film's denouement by Bugler as a BondOneLiner, after he shoots Coldiron dead to silence him]][[note]]'''Bill:''' ''(chuckling)'' I don't think cash changes hands![[/note]].
115	* ItsAllMyFault: Coldyron blames himself completely, except he stated that R.O.T.O.R. was four years from completion, and Shoeboogie was the one who activated it. It's probably his fault for allowing a minor accident to allow the robot to get activated, but basically, it's all ''Bugler's'' fault.
116	** You '''really''' have to ask yourself, though, from this one line during his presentation.
117	--> '''Coldyron''': "I've already wondered if our creation is gonna rescue society, or destroy it."
118	* {{Jerkass}}:
119	** Sonya's fiancee.
120	--->'''Mike:''' ''(as R.O.T.O.R.)'' You have exceeded all douchebaggery protocols.
121	** Also, not many people notice because of his comedy relief, but Shoeboogie is a pretty good example too. He spends most of his screentime harassing a co-worker and accuses her of being racist for not putting out.
122	* JiveTurkey: Shoeboogie, a (self-described) Apache who talks like a character from a blaxploitation film. (Ironically, he resembles an ''East'' Indian more than a Native American.) Podcast/RiffTrax compares him to [[Series/StarskyAndHutch Huggy Bear]].
123	-->'''Shoeboogie:''' Once you go red, you never get out of bed![[note]]'''Mike:''' Khrushchev was always saying that to the Moscow lay-days.[[/note]]
124	* KarmaHoudini: Shoeboogie's janitorial negligence is responsible for activating the killer robot, but he seems to escape any consequences for this. So does Houghtaling, Willard the robot, Commander Bugler, and everybody else who directly contributed to the robot's going berserk (and in Bugler's case, [[spoiler:blowing away Coldyron in a police station parking lot]]). The only people who suffer are innocent bystanders and the two most competent and noble scientists.
125	* LampshadeHanging: "What do you think this is, some low-budget sci-fi flick?"
126	-->'''[[Podcast/RiffTrax Mike:]]''' Gah! The movie is becoming self-aware!
127	* LeaveTheCameraRunning: The film is padded with long, dialogue-free scenes of Coldyron puttering around his house, having a leisurely dinner with his ladyfriend, and driving to work.
128	* MaleGaze: Due to the positioning of the camera, Sonya's rear takes up the whole screen for a moment.
129	-->'''Kevin:''' ''(as Sonya)'' My butt's not in the shot is it?
130	* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords:
131	** A lot of what Dr. Barrett Coldyron supplies as "philosophy":
132	--> "We're all prognosticators of the future. And since our particular purpose of vision belongs to the creed of law enforcement, we open inroads into tomorrow, in ways and means of those who would serve and protect justice and order."
133	** The line "Justice delivered, C.O.D." is mentioned twice in the film to highlight R.O.T.O.R.'s indiscriminate rampage of PoliceBrutality [[spoiler:and by Bugler as a BondOneLiner IronicEcho after executing Coldyron.]] Nobody explains what the heck "C.O.D." is supposed to mean in this instance ("[[DeathNotification certification of death]]", maybe?), making it sound even more dumb than the writers probably were aiming for. Rifftrax had a field day with this line by applying the most regular use of the acronym, "cash on delivery".
134	* {{Metaphorgotten}}:
135	** Many, but Coldyron's threat to "make more noise than two skeletons making love in a tin coffin" is a masterpiece of confusing analogy.
136	** "Look at you! You look like you've got both eyes coming out of the same hole!" comes a close second.
137	* MisappliedPhlebotinum: R.O.T.O.R's most far fetched ability is something called "Sensor Recall" which allows him to see into the past to view events that happened in whatever area he's looking at, which he mainly uses when trying to hunt down someone in order the check if they had been through said area recently. Ignoring the fact that [[ScienceFantasy such a power is more like magic than anything vaguely scientific or technological]], you would think whatever designer discovered such an ability would use it for more things than just a cop robot, as, to name just one thing, historians could use it to see into the past and find out if some famous historical even ''really'' happened the way everyone thinks.
138	--> '''Coldyron:''' I don't know what any of that means.\
139	'''[[Podcast/RiffTrax Mike]]:''' ''(as Coldyron)'' I'm just some shmoe who taught a robot to see through time.
140	* TheMockbuster: Of such films as ''Film/TheTerminator'' and especially ''Film/RoboCop1987'', which premiered earlier the same year.
141	* MoodWhiplash: The, ahem, "comedy" moments clash with the science fiction, er, "drama". For example, a short order chef for ''whatever'' reason has huge fake buck teeth. Why? Because huge fake buck teeth are ''funny'', dammit!
142	--> '''Bill Corbett:''' (''As said cook gets his face pressed into the grill'') Ha ha. It's ''funny'' because he's ''rural''.
143	* MuggingTheMonster:
144	** This happens a lot with bystanders attacking R.O.T.O.R.
145	** The holdup man at the mart had no idea that his BadassBystander hostage was a martial arts master. He's overwhelmed so quickly the viewer will probably feel ''sorry'' for him.
146	* MurderousMalfunctioningMachine: The prototype for R.O.T.O.R. was unfinished and flawed when it was released on a rampage.
147	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Steele, with a heavy dollop of DullSurprise.
148	* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Coldyron's nephew is studying at the "science department" of Oxford University.
149	* OnlySaneMan: Willard, who twice mocks how idiotic the R.O.T.O.R. project is and bails the moment things turn sour.
150	* OpeningScroll: And it imparts information that is later repeated in expository dialogue, so... real useful.
151	* PhoneInDetective: About half of Coldyron's interactions with other characters take the form of telephone conversations.
152	-->'''Mike:''' The movie ''Film/PhoneBooth'' had fewer phone calls!
153	* PlotHole:
154	** When trying to run a diagnostic on R.O.T.O.R., Houghtaling tells Willard to go punch in a few codes on a keypad. Jabootu phrases it best: "A more obvious concern, I’d think, would be how Willard intends to 'punch in' the codes, given that his arms are about as functional as fellow mechanoid [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Tom Servo]]’s."
155	** After the police find the body of Sonya's boyfriend, they call Coldyron to notify him, and obey him when he tells them to take no action. Despite him quitting his job and no longer being part of the police force.
156	** Coldyron says that he has never met Dr. Steele, and their dialogue makes it clear that they are meeting for the first time. But at a certain point, Coldyron says, "Remember what I said at R.O.T.O.R.'s christening?" Why would Steele remember, if she and Coldyron had never met before?
157	** How did the single length of primacord rope suddenly turn into five lasso ends? Even if Coldyron was able to spend the ''few seconds'' lassoing R.O.T.O.R. up in five places, how did the rope suddenly have ''five'' ends?
158	* PoliceAreUseless: Sorry, ma'am. If the killer robot is out of our jurisdiction, we can't lift a finger to help you.
159	* PrettyLittleHeadshots: R.O.T.O.R kills Sonya's fiance by shooting him in the head with a Desert Eagle, which should have blown all of his brains out but instead just leaves him with a little red mark on his forehead.
160	* PsychicPowers: R.O.T.O.R. has "sensor recall," meaning it can look at a scene and see events from the past. Keep in mind that he can't bend at the waist or tolerate the sound of car horns.
161	--> '''Mike:''' So they were years away from having a ready product, but already nailed down recreating the past just by looking at stuff.
162	* PunnyName: The two main characters are Coldyron ("cold iron") and Steele.
163	--> '''YT Comment:''' That's not Cold Iron. That's Coldy Ron.
164	* PurpleProse: Coldyron's "cowboy poetry". Note that he's ''giving testimony to the police'' while saying this.
165	-->"The day started like any other day. The fresh October morning breeze blew across the ranch, the cattle were coming in for the morning feeding, and a buttery morning sunlight painted a golden glow through the ranch house windows."
166	* RecklessGunUsage: At the mart hold-up scene, Coldyron sticks a Desert Eagle gun in his pants. For those of you not familiar with the model, the thing weighs ''4 pounds''. It's a good thing the gun Coldyron has is a plastic movie prop.
167	* RedHerring: Steele tells Coldyron that since apparently part of Coldyon's mind was [[BrainUploading used in R.O.T.O.R.'s brain]] he will have "to use his own failure" to defeat it. That never happens, and comes off as just a RuleOfCool statement. Instead, Steele just tries to pound R.O.T.O.R. into submission.
168	* RidiculouslyHumanRobot:
169	** Willard, at least personality-wise. He sighs, moans, and even asks for his co-worker's fries. It's almost as if the role was written for a human character.
170	** R.O.T.O.R. himself sports a potbelly and a PornStache. Ah, TheEighties.
171	* RoboCam: R.O.T.O.R.'s POV is represented by a handheld camera shot with inverted colors and crosshairs in the middle of the frame.
172	* RuleOfSymbolism: Coldyron has a little robot and a small metal griffin on his desk. The camera loves small metal griffin, but why?
173	* SameLanguageDub: The actors who play Coldyron and Steele are dubbed by other actors.
174	* ScareChord: A big sting is heard when Shoeboogie jostles some random piece of equipment in the robotics lab. It turns out that disturbing this item is what causes the killer robot to awaken.
175	* SceneShiftCaption: After every cut to a new time or location, the screen displays the day of the week and the time of day, for example FRIDAY 7:30 P.M. This information is by no means required to follow the rather simple and straightforward plot.
176	-->'''Bill:''' Are we going to be tested on the specific times everything is happening?
177	** Jabootu [[http://www.jabootu.com/rotor.htm helpfully]] laid out each time stamp chronologically as it related to the film.
178	* ScienceHero: Both Barrett Coldyron and Steele. [[InformedAbility Allegedly]].
179	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When Coldyron informs Willard, aka Robot Cop, that R.O.T.O.R. has escaped, he immediately announces his resignation. [[NarmCharm Over the phone.]] Coldyron hangs up on him mid-resignation speech.
180	* SequelHook: After [[spoiler: Coldyron is shot]], his papers are sent to his nephew, an aspiring roboticist who seems intrigued by his uncle's research and willing to continue his work. R.O.T.O.R. II resembles Steele.
181	* ShirtlessScene: The last of the rednecks to attack R.O.T.O.R. in the diner dramatically removes his suspenders and tears off his t-shirt to reveal a buff chest, pronouncing, "Let's see you deal with a ''real man'' now." The moment comes off as ''extremely'' homoerotic, but the whole thing is undercut by the fact R.O.T.O.R. [[CurbStompBattle takes him out easily]].
182	* ShoehornedAcronym: R.O.T.O.R is [[AntagonistTitle the robot's "name"]], and stands for "Robotic Officer Tactical Operational Research", which sounds more like the name of the program to create such a robot than the robot itself (one scene claims the second R stands for "reserve" instead, which makes even less sense.) It's especially ''JustForFun/{{Egregious}}'' considering the word "rotor" doesn't even have anything to do with the robot, meaning they could have just picked a better name and built a less forced acronym around it.
183	* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: After his story is over, Coldyron is unceremoniously gunned down in a parking lot by Bugler.]]
184	* ShoutOut:
185	** For whatever reason, there are a ton of Music/TheBeachBoys references during Coldyron's briefing with scientists, including lines like "Good Vibrations", "God Only Knows", "I Get Around", "Heroes and Villains", "Rock and Roll", and so on. Then there's the Wilson Institute, Jardine University at Malibu, etc.
186	** At one point Willard decries how stupid the R.O.T.O.R. Project idea is by snarking "I think this is how ''[[Film/TheTerminator Terminator]]'' got started". The irony being that Willard is a robot himself.
187	* SnarkyNonHumanSidekick: Willard the non-killer robot.
188	* StandardPoliceMotto: R.O.T.O.R.'s motto is "To Judge and Execute." Nope, nothing wrong with that at all...
189	* StockPhrase: One hick actually says, "Feet don't fail me now!" when fleeing.
190	* StockSoundEffects: Statum is playing ''VideoGame/{{Pitfall}}'' on work time, but the sound effects coming from the monitor is from the Platform/Atari2600 version of ''Videogame/PacMan''.
191	* SunglassesAtNight: Coldyron wears his sunglasses the whole time he's in a darkened room, making his presentation on R.O.T.O.R.
192	* SuperPersistentPredator: R.O.T.O.R. spends the entire film chasing down a woman who's at ''best'' guilty of resisting arrest. It's trying to ''[[DisproportionateRetribution kill]]'' her, without ever even calling for backup (which would be ludicrous), but why wouldn't it if it felt the crime was serious enough to warrant the death penalty.
193	* SuperReflexes: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with R.O.T.O.R., as his reflexes are super slow. In the climax of the movie, he threatens [[spoiler:Coldyron]] with his gun, [[spoiler:Coldyron]] ducks away, about two or three seconds later (which is much longer than it sounds) R.O.T.O.R. unfazedly and spectacularly fires a shot into emptiness, completely missing [[spoiler:Coldyron]].
194	* SuspectIsHatless: When Sonya calls the police for help, she doesn't give them much to work with.
195	-->'''Kevin:''' She's alerted a cop that can't help her that she'll be driving south away from the murderer or maybe toward him in some kind of vehicle.
196	* TechnoBabble: There's lots of it, and it's all worse than you can imagine. "Is there some [[Music/TheBeachBoys good vibration]] to its molecular tonality that you can utilize?" and "I can’t run a sequential circuitry test without the impulse feed chain." are just two examples.
197	* TemptingFate: Invoked by Steele when she changes her hotel room number because it's identical to R.O.T.O.R.'s badge number. Tempting fate ''how'' is never revealed, and "tempting reality" is just a nonsense phrase.
198	* TerminatorImpersonator: R.O.T.O.R. is a Terminator wanna-be with his killing spree justified as a [[PoliceBrutality zero-tolerance crime prevention protocol]] going haywire. It also makes some of the design choices baffling (why the mustache?). His rampage is even directly (and snarkily) compared to ''Film/TheTerminator'' InUniverse by another character (a fellow robot, [[{{Irony}} to boot]]).
199	* ThemeNaming: Coldyron (Cold iron) and Steele. We get it.
200	* TooDumbToLive: Sonya. After R.O.T.O.R. [[spoiler:kills her fiancé]], she flees with her car and R.O.T.O.R. follows her with the intent to kill her. She shakes him off, then stops on the open road and is looking for her purse (!) when she sees a police officer in the rearview mirror although she knows R.O.T.O.R. (looking like a police officer) is still following her. She only survives because R.O.T.O.R. somehow forgets to use his gun and lets her escape quickly. Perhaps even worse, she learns right away that R.O.T.O.R is [[WeaksauceWeakness really vulnerable to loud noises,]] which she discovers ''by accident'' when she leans on her horn. Instead of just [[JustEatGilligan continuing to press on her horn until he breaks altogether,]] she just keeps trying to outrun him.
201	** R.O.T.O.R. himself is pretty much ineffectual except against a mouthy, unarmed guy. At one point, he has Sonya dead to rights in the car, but then she leans over in the car seat and instead of just reaching down and grabbing her, ''he continues to reach straight out instead of angling his arm down to get her!'' The movie would've been over in that scene if he simply knew how to ''bend over slightly.''
202	* TheUnintelligible: R.O.T.O.R., who mumbles its lines ''and'' has a robotic reverb added.
203	* VagueAge: Steele's skunk stripe and initial outfit seem to imply that she's meant to be several years older than her actress, but her general appearance is just so bizarre that it's difficult to tell just what the filmmakers were going for.
204	* ViewerFriendlyInterface: Largely averted. Coldyron's computer uses an ultra-minimalist command-line system. However, font size fluctuates wildly depending on the importance of the text.
205	* VillainsActHeroesReact: The plot is set in motion when a villainous unseen politician decides to sabotage the R.O.T.O.R. project as part of some elaborate scheme to get himself elected president. Coldyron spends the entire film reacting to the resulting disaster.
206	* WackySoundEffect: When R.O.T.O.R. swats away the cop who was trying to sign him up for the policemen's ball, a cartoony 'boink' is heard.
207	* WeaksauceWeakness: Although he was designed to patrol the highways, R.O.T.O.R. is incapacitated by the sound of car horns and loud noise in general (one scene has it stunned by a boom box playing country music). Even more bizarrely, although Sonya repeatedly exploits this weakness, she apparently does so ''unwittingly'', and never realizes that she can disable R.O.T.O.R. indefinitely just by leaning on the horn. Instead, she honks the horn a few times and then stops, allowing the killer robot to recover and continue chasing her.
208	-->'''Mike:''' It's like if Lex Luthor had Superman cornered with a kryptonite gun, then decided to trade it for beans.
209	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
210	** Despite being featured in several early scenes, Coldyron's girlfriend vanishes from the film at the halfway point and is never mentioned again.
211	** Likewise, despite pretty much the bulk of the film being R.O.T.O.R. pursuing her, Sonya isn't mentioned again after R.O.T.O.R. is defeated, with Coldyron only appearing with Steele's body.
212	* ZombieGait: R.O.T.O.R. sometimes walks normally, but whenever he is pursuing someone on foot, he shifts to a slow, stiff-limbed shuffle, as if to remind the audience that he is a robot. However, at another point, R.O.T.O.R. ''runs'', which makes one wonder why he didn't before.
213	-->'''Kevin:''' He's in casual attack mode.

Context Film / ROTOR